Summary
Fanatics (1917) is a chiaroscuro study of moral disintegration and the catastrophic fallout of misplaced loyalty. Robert Lathrop, a man whose fiscal and ethical bankruptcy has reached a terminal velocity, finds himself rebuffed by the 'Steel King,' Nicholas Eyre. In a maneuver of breathtaking cowardice, Lathrop weaponizes his wife’s familial connections to secure a loan under false pretenses, only to funnel the proceeds toward his clandestine paramour, Lola. The narrative pivots violently when Lathrop discovers Lola in the embrace of another, leading to a fatal altercation that leaves him a corpse in a public park. The subsequent tragedy is twofold: his widow, laboring under the delusion that Eyre’s financial coldness drove her husband to suicide, embarks on a crusade of vengeance that threatens to incinerate the innocent before the sordid truth of Lathrop’s duplicity finally emerges from the shadows.
Synopsis
Failing to get a loan from Nicholas Eyre, the Steel King and friend of his wife's father, Robert Lathrop induces his wife to beg for the money he plans to spend upon his mistress. He is given a check. Hurrying to Lola's apartments, he finds her in the arms of her lover, Haskell. In the fight that follows, Lathrop is killed and left in the park. Believing her husband to be a suicide because Eyre refused to advance him funds, the wife plans to revenge what she considers his murder, but enlightenment comes after terrible damage has been done.
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